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June 2005

By Chris Wolski

Secret Weapon

I recently had the good fortune to attend a preview screening of the soon-to-be-released documentary Murderball, which chronicles the trials and tribulations of the US Quad Rugby team and its Canadian rivals in the quest for the gold at the 2004 Athens Paralympics. I highly recommend the movie and hope that not only therapists and their patients can see it, but that the general public will also discover Murderball and its inspiring message of independence and athletic achievement in the face of a life-altering injury. (The July issue of Rehab Management will include additional information about this film.)

Like all well-made films, Murderball has its thought-provoking moments, which linger long after the lights come up and the celluloid has finished unspooling. There are no end of these here, but what struck me hardest wasn’t the kinetic scenes of the wheelchair athletes in action or even the day-to-day dramas that face the men and their families.

It was, instead, a clinical moment—when Mark Zupan, the official spokesman for the team, visited some newly injured and introduced the idea of quad rugby and a sense of normality to men whose lives have been turned upside down.

Apart from just being a good way to connect one of the film’s protagonists to the world of rehab, the incident illustrates the power of inspiration and motivation—and that it is not always scientifically developed treatment protocols or million-dollar equipment that will get the best results.

As Minna Hong, peer support coordinator at the Shepherd Center, Atlanta, told me recently, peer support is tremendously valuable during the recovery process, and she should know, having a spinal injury herself. For a newly injured patient to see someone with the same condition living a full life serves as a reminder that the injury is “not a determinate of who you are,” says Hong. “It’s showing you your potential future.”

And, for some, quad rugby is the way to achieve the future. As Hong observes, “Sometimes doing an activity like quad rugby [will get patients thinking,] ‘If I can do this, why can’t I go back to work?’”

The peer-to-peer support group is not the newest weapon in the therapist’s arsenal, but it may be one of the more underutilized. In the era of measurable results and budget pressures, only larger rehab departments and institutions can afford to fund a professionally run support system like the one at the Shepherd Center. Other facilities have to rely on volunteers or happenstance.

This is unfortunate because these unmeasurable, unrepeatable peer-to-peer moments may be what gives the patient with a spinal injury the will to fully commit to the scientifically proven and meticulously engineered. If there was ever a case to be made to commit to the cultivation of human capital during budget time, then this is it. It would be money well spent, though its results would be hard to measure—healing the spirit typically is.

--Chris Wolski

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